Re:CREATORS Episode 5

“So, why don’t we have ourselves a guys’ night out?”

Our heroes are dragged before a government subcommittee to explain what the dickens has been going on the past four episodes.

Iro’s thoughts

As is the running theme here, conceptually this episode was a good idea. In media like Fate/Stay Night, Digimon, or Persona – with blatantly supernatural goings-on in the streets – it’s easy to ask what the cops or the military are up to, and how the events might affect things on a scale broader than the main character’s immediate vicinity, but this is rarely addressed. I’d argue that’s not really a problem if the story itself is operating at a smaller scale, or if you’re pressed for time (such as, for example, being a 24 episode TV show instead of a novel). In fact, in just about any other long-form medium, I might appreciate this kind of plot development.

Unfortunately, Re:CREATORS hasn’t given me any reason to view it favorably. While interesting in concept, in practice we sit for 15 minutes as a bunch of suits go over information we already know. It actually serves quite handily as a justification for why Selesia, et al. won’t be arrested or otherwise badgered by public servants, but I’m unconvinced that we should have been asking that question in the first place. Last week was already an episode packed to bursting with exposition, so doing that again is just plain tedious and boring.

We’re properly introduced to giant robot pilot Rui Kanoya this week, and he’s a shithead tween in the vein of Amuro Ray’s earliest depictions. It’s a surprisingly canny move, assuming they can keep it up, but he seems like the type of character who fades into the background so the ladies can keep center stage; after he throws his tantrum, he sits completely still during pretty much the entire rest of the episode, which is a shame. One could argue that because all of these characters are pulled from fiction, it’s okay for them to act so one-dimensional all the time, but the premise allows for a deeper exploration of their motives that I wish we could get. Having Kanoya’s writer groan that what’s interesting in a story is troublesome to deal with in real life is a pretty good summation of what this show could be, if it put its mind to it.

Lastly, this week brings the “reveal” that Sota was somehow involved in the creation of the Military Uniform Princess (or at least knew her Creator, the girl who kills herself in the premiere’s prologue), which is simultaneously treated as the biggest and most obvious surprise in the universe. He wouldn’t have realized it so early in the show’s run if the staff didn’t know it was obvious, but the presentation surrounding it is so over-dramatic that it becomes goofy. Did you know that in stories – such as the popular new anime Re:CREATORS – the main character is supposed to have stakes and interests in the main plot? I know, it’s a hard concept to swallow, but bear with me as the show moves forward.

Re:Observations

Really, there’s no reason why the giant robot couldn’t run roughshod over the entire rest of the cast. I await the justification for why they can’t do that.

I went back and skimmed the prologue of episode 1, which is Sota spouting some stuff about how he’s not quite the main character, blahblah. I understand the purposes of having an everyman protagonist, but boy am I tired of anime’s strict adherence to having Milquetoast McDull be in every goddamn show.

They still can’t fucking decide whether the “breaking the fabric of reality” thing is actually true or if it’s a hypothesis they have absolutely zero evidence for, and I hate it.

Not one of the government suits asks what the hell Sota – an ostensibly unrelated high-school student – is doing mixed up in all this business.